novelist

My debut novel, Child of Fire, was named to Publishers Weekly's Best 100 Books of 2009, and the two that followed received starred reviews. My epic fantasy trilogy The Great Way was crowdfunded and, at the time, was the ninth-most funded Fiction Kickstarter ever.

Animated movie meme

– X what you saw
– O what you haven’t finished/seen or saw sizable portions
– L what you loved
– D what you disliked/hated
– Leave unchanged if neutral
CLASSIC DISNEY
——————————-
[X] 101 Dalmatians (1961)
[X] Alice in Wonderland (1951)
[X] Bambi (1942):
[X] Cinderella (1950)
[X] Dumbo (1941)
[X] Fantasia (1940)
[X] Lady and the Tramp (1955)
[XL] Mary Poppins (1964) My son found this a little dull, which surprised me. I love it
[X] Peter Pan (1953) This one is ruined by the Indians.
[X] Pinocchio (1940)
[X] Sleeping Beauty (1959): Love the dragon at the end, but…
[X] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Ah, Snow White. Such an active protagonist!
[X] Song of the South (1946): I barely remember it, but I know I’ve seen it at some point.

DISNEY’S DARK AGE
——————————-
[X] The Aristocats (1970)
[ ] The Black Cauldron (1985): I love the books, but have still never seen the movie.
[X] The Fox and the Hound (1981):
[ ] The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
[X] The Jungle Book (1967)
[ ] The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977):
[ ] Oliver and Company (1986) The first one on the list I’ve never even heard of.
[X] Pete’s Dragon (1977) I have the sense I’ve seen it, but can’t remember anything beyond a live-action boy talking to an animated dragon.
[X] The Rescuers (1977)
[X] Robin Hood (1973)
[X] The Sword In The Stone (1963):

PIXAR
——————————-
[X] A Bug’s Life (1998):
[ ] Cars (2006): And I have no plans to, either
[XL] Finding Nemo (2003):
[XL] The Incredibles (2004):
[XL] Monsters Inc. (2001): Only suffers by comparison to other Pixar movies. Good fun
[XL] Ratatouille (2007): I hate rats, but I like this movie.
[XL] Toy Story (1995) ‘Natch
[XL] Toy Story 2 (1999): I was amazed that this was better than the first one.
[ ] Toy Story 3 (2010)
[X] Wall-E (2008): Wonderful right up to the stupid fat-guy stuff.
[XL] Up (2009): Weird and excellent.

DON BLUTH
——————————-
[X] All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
[X] An American Tail (1986) I saw this on CBC, for some reason. Immediately after the film, they aired “Rick Mercer talks to Americans” (or whatever the show was called) to counteract the movie’s pro-Americanism.
[ ] An American Tail: Fieval Goes West (1991)
[ ] Anastasia (1997)
[X] The Land Before Time (1988)
[XD] The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) Wow. Genuinely bad film, not just the usual dopey moviemaking.
[ ] Rock-a-Doodle (1991)
[X] The Secret of NIMH (1982)
[ ] Thumbelina (1994)
[X] Titan AE (2000)
[ ] A Troll in Central Park (1994)

CLAYMATION
——————————-
[ ] The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986) Seriously? That’s a movie? Does he fight robots?
[X] Chicken Run (2000):
[XD] Corpse Bride (2005)
[XD] James and the Giant Peach (1996) This just did not work for me at all.
[XL] The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) A holiday movie about creative inspiration. Nicely done, even if they could have cut one song.
[XL] Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005): This may be the best movie on the list.
[X] Coraline (2009) This would absolutely get an L if it weren’t for the very last bit.

CGI GLUT
——————————-
[X] Antz (1998) Woody Allen and Sly Stallone?? Okay.
[OD] Bee Movie (2007) The first movie on the list I turned off part way in. Truly terrible.
[X] Happy Feet (2006) A confection.
[X] Ice Age (2002)
[ ] Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
[ ] Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009);
[X] Kung Fu Panda (2008) Good the first time, but it didn’t hold up to a repeat viewing. Still good, though
[X] Madagascar (2005)
[X] Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)
[XL] Monster House (2006) This was terrific. It sort of freaked me out a little.
[X] Over the Hedge (2006)
[XD] The Polar Express (2004) Uncanny Valley! Also, the story was a string of silly “dangers”
[XD] Robots (2005); My son loved this, but ugh
[X] A Shark’s Tale (2004)
[XL] Shrek (2001) This movie really worked for me.
[X] Shrek 2 (2004)
[X] Shrek The Third (2007)
[ ] Shrek Forever After (2010); I’ve seen maybe half an hour total from all four Shrek movies, and that was too much.
[X] Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) I should have liked this more than I did.

IMPORTS
——————————-
[ ] Arabian Knight (aka The Thief and the Cobbler) (1995)
[ ] The Last Unicorn (1982) I can’t remember if I’ve seen this or not. Hmph.
[ ] Light Years (1988)
[XL] The Triplets of Belleville (2003) Such an odd and wonderful movie.
[ ] Persepolis (2007) I want to read the comics first
[ ] Waltz With Bashir (2008)
[O] Watership Down (1978) Loved the book but couldn’t watch this
[ ] When the Wind Blows (1988)
[ ] Wonderful Days (2003)
[XL] Yellow Submarine (1968)

I’m surprised by how many of these I haven’t seen… or even heard of.

STUDIO GHIBLI/MIYAZAKI
——————————-
[ ] The Cat Returns (2002)
[ ] Grave of the Fireflies (1988); I should, I know. But when it comes time to pick a movie to watch, “the one about Hiroshima” always ends up at the bottom of the list.
[XL] Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Love the protagonist
[XL] Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) Love the protagonist
[ ] Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[ ] Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
[ ] My Neighbors The Yamadas (1999)
[XL] My Neighbor Totoro (1993) Startling and wonderful the first time through, but less affecting on repeat viewings.
[X] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
[ ] Only Yesterday (1991)
[ ] Pom Poko (Tanuki War) (1994); Probably my older son’s favorite Ghibli movie; it might be mine as well.
[X] Porco Rosso (1992) I should like this better than I do. It just doesn’t pull together for me.
[XL] Princess Mononoke (1999)
[XL] Spirited Away (2002)
[ ] Whisper of the Heart (1995)
[X] Ponyo (2009) Disappointing, to be honest.